Natural Selection 2

I remember playing the NS1 mod for HL1 shortly after it came out. You could feel the raw "spirit" the developers put into the game. It was not only challenging multiplayer competition, it was also an atmospheric and downright creepy/chilling. The pre-existing HL1 textures, sound effects and sounds with the custom ones really gave NS1 a nice kick in the atmospherics area. An area NS2 severely lacks in.

Levels in NS1 were bigger of course, and made you feel more immersed in the levels, like you were actually inside of a base. Granted, a lot of the rooms lacked details like chairs & such but that was a consequence more of gaming back then.

For me the small details from NS1 such as interactive doors with buttons, lifts, huge blast doors and other custom effects made the game much more replayable and enjoyable. In NS2, these features are missing and it feels quite barebones.

This is why I didn't support them making their own engine. It took so long to build the engine that NS2 has suffered for that time loss. Even their newly announced game Subnautica will not be using the Spark Engine because of its limitations.

I bet they thought all these developers would be rushing in to purchase licenses for the Spark Engine but so far none have and for good reason.

You could build phase gates and commander chairs in very interesting places, including vents.

The brilliance in NS1 was the vast amount of creativity that was offered up to the players which was extremely rewarding and memorable. NS2 is pretty much designed for very polished, clean, unblemished comp play...it can get damn boring playing something that never lets you try something more unconventional.

Hell, the custom siege maps was incredibly fun and dare I say balanced in NS1, they are pretty much unplayable in NS2.

Also, I've said this before, but NS2 is allergic to verticality because of the nav requirements of drones/arcs/cyst placement. What an excellent way to kill map diversity.

Still...NS2 is fun for what it is, if not as interesting as the orginal. At the very least, we have two different games to play now.

I agree with you 100%*aside from the rude comment*, the game feels barren in map design and atmosphere. It's more akin to visiting a museum and looking around the place as opposed to actually being in a fully functional facility.

I agree with you 100%*aside from the rude comment*, the game feels barren in map design and atmosphere. It's more akin to visiting a museum and looking around the place as opposed to actually being in a fully functional facility.

Yep. As a young teen I was always fascinated by NS1 map interactivity. I used the Hammer editor a lot making ready rooms and building doors/architecture but never really completed a map.

I was looking forward to NS2 because I thought the atmospherics and map design would be taken to the absolute next level. I was so disappointed. Then I found out to complete an NS2 map takes on average 7-10 months.

Yeah that's too long. Also, any map worth its weight in salt needs to have 100% custom content. This means you essentially need a team of 3d model artists & texture artists if you want anything to be taken seriously as a possible official map.

The engine doesn't even have Volumes of water in it yet.. My whole map idea was an underwater base. The engine itself is so bulky it feels like, not very nice at all.

One thing missing from NS2 that makes it more frustrating, is the lack of controllable vent doors to close off rooms. They could have at least made it so if an alien shoots the control panel it disables the vent door temporarily. But nope.

One thing missing from NS2 that makes it more frustrating, is the lack of controllable vent doors to close off rooms. They could have at least made it so if an alien shoots the control panel it disables the vent door temporarily. But nope.

I'm not sure if you mean the same, but I miss being able to weild vents shut. I'm sure it would change the game play some, It's just another thing I miss.